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Cambridge Immunology Network

 

Research

The Bacterial Infection Group at the Department of Veterinary Medicine works on diverse pathogens in various host systems. Functional genomics plays a large part in our work, with a focus on food-borne pathogens, as well as work on respiratory tract pathogens and host resistance systems e.g. TLRs, FcRs etc. We use several transposon- and microarray-based technologies to interrogate bacterial genomes to identify genes required for colonisation and virulence in the host. We have developed systems for the reduction and replacement of animals in our research, such as air interface respiratory tract organ culture and other cell culture-based methods, but we still validate these systems with whole animal experiments. We are increasingly working with mathematical modelers and physicists using techniques such as optical tweezers to ask questions about the physics of the interaction between single bacteria and single host cells.

Publications

Key publications: 

Gog JR, Murcia A, Osterman N, Restif O, McKinley TJ, Sheppard M, Achouri S, Wei B, Mastroeni P, Wood JL, Maskell DJ, Cicuta P, Bryant CE. Dynamics of Salmonella infection of macrophages at the single cell level. J R Soc Interface. 2012 Oct 7;9(75):2696-707.

 

Kubler-Kielb J, Vinogradov E, Lagergård T, Ginzberg A, King JD, Preston A, Maskell DJ, Pozsgay V, Keith JM, Robbins JB, Schneerson R. Oligosaccharide conjugates of Bordetella pertussis and bronchiseptica induce bactericidal antibodies, an addition to pertussis vaccine. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Mar 8;108(10):4087-92

 

Raghunathan D, Wells TJ, Morris FC, Shaw RK, Bobat S, Peters SE, Paterson GK, Jensen KT, Leyton DL, Blair JM, Browning DF, Pravin J, Flores-Langarica A, Hitchcock JR, Moraes CT, Piazza RM, Maskell DJ, Webber MA, May RC, MacLennan CA, Piddock LJ, Cunningham AF, Henderson IR. SadA, a trimeric autotransporter from Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, can promote biofilm formation and provides limited protection against infection. Infect Immun. 2011 Nov;79(11):4342-52.

 

Paterson GK, Maskell DJ. Recent advances in the field of Salmonella Typhi vaccines. Hum Vaccin. 2010 May;6(5):379-84.

 

Northen H, Paterson GK, Constantino-Casas F, Bryant CE, Clare S, Mastroeni P, Peters SE, Maskell DJ. Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium mutants completely lacking the F(0)F(1) ATPase are novel live attenuated vaccine strains. Vaccine. 2010 Jan 22;28(4):940-9

 

Talbot S, Tötemeyer S, Yamamoto M, Akira S, Hughes K, Gray D, Barr T, Mastroeni P, Maskell DJ, Bryant CE. Toll-like receptor 4 signalling through MyD88 is essential to control Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium infection, but not for the initiation of bacterial clearance. Immunology. 2009 Dec;128(4):472-83.

Professor Duncan  Maskell
Takes PhD students
Not available for consultancy

Affiliations

Classifications: 
Departments and institutes: 
Person keywords: 
genomics
animal models
Fc receptors
macrophages
microarrays
mathematical models of the immune response
biofilm
vaccines
bacterial infections
Toll-like receptors